1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to internet web sites and particularly pertains to an objective measurement of internet web site effectiveness.
2. Description of the Related Art
The internet, or world wide web (or simply xe2x80x9cWebxe2x80x9d), is a matrix of networks that connects computers around the world. Within the internet are Web sites that can be accessed by internet users. Users need a web browser and an internet connection to access a Web site.
Definitions and usage of internet terms such as Web sites, pages, frames, and framesets vary within the industry and between texts and authors. In addition, such terms may have different usage depending upon whether the reference is to the visual representation of a Web site or to code that creates the Web site. This specification seeks to use terms in their most common usage, but where a term is used in a particular manner, its meaning is intended by its usage.
A Web site is one or more Web pages. A Web page is a document on the internet and consists of a markup language file (e.g., HyperText Markup Language (HTML) or EXtensible Markup Language (XML)) and associated files (e.g., graphics and scripts). Usually a Web page contains hyperlinks, or simply xe2x80x9clinks,xe2x80x9d that connect one Web page to another Web page on the same Web site (a local link) or to another Web site (an external link). A hyperlink may also connect one portion of a Web page to another portion of the same Web page. The hyperlinks allow a user to move between Web pages, or portions of a page, by positioning a display cursor on a hyperlink and clicking an input device such as a mouse.
Hyperlinks may set out the organization of a Web site and serve as a guide or table of contents to the Web site. For example, a Web site may have an outline of the Web site contents and words of the outline may be hyperlinks connecting the Web page having the outline to other Web pages of the Web site.
Many Web sites have a home page as their starting point, or entry page, which frequently functions as a table of contents, or map for the site, or as an introduction to the site. Typically, the home page serves as an entry point to the Web site and contains one or more links to other Web pages within the Web site.
Most Web sites are created and maintained to convey information to the internet user. The information may be advertising, data, news, entertainment, or any other type of information that may be conveyed by graphics, alphanumerics, video, or sound. Commercial Web sites may include opportunities for the user to purchase goods or services, communicate with the Web site sponsor, and check a status of a transaction. Commercial sites that offer services (such as searching) or news may present advertising simultaneously with the service, or news.
In almost all Web sites, the Web site sponsor is concerned with how effectively the Web site performs its intended objectives. As noted, most Web sites are intended to convey information to the user. The user must be able to identify, locate, and access the desired information. Thus, Web site sponsors seek means to determine the effectiveness of the Web site in conveying information to the user.
Subjective means of determining a Web site""s effectiveness are available to everyone by visiting a Web site and forming an opinion. In addition, there are Web sites that have lists of other Web sites and rank the other sites on subjective criteria such as amusement value, usefulness, and interest. However, such subjective means do not permit a precise or accurate comparison of one Web site to another, or of a Web site at different times with different content or organization.
The National Institutes of Standards and Technology provides a software tool called a Static Analyzer Tool (SAT) that reads the HTML code of a Web page, compares the Web page to xe2x80x9cusability guidelines,xe2x80x9d and provides a report of potential usability problems. The identified usability guidelines are (1) accessibility, (2) form use, (3) performance, (4) maintainability, (5) navigation, and (6) readability. As an example of the operation of this software tool, the usability guideline for xe2x80x9cperformancexe2x80x9d states that internet users access the internet using various connection speeds and slow access to a Web site can deter a user from returning to, or exploring, a slow site. To determine the Web page performance, the Static Analyzer Tool performs four HTML checks of the Web page.
First, the Static Analyzer Tool checks the total amount of graphics on the page and returns a score based on whether the total graphics exceed 30 kilobytes of size. The Static Analyzer Tool then checks the HTML code to determine the number of images that do not specify height and width. The Static Analyzer Tool then checks the number of images that are in a JPEG image format, which format is considered incompatible with some web browser software. Lastly, the Tool checks whether the Web page has a banner that is greater than 475 pixels in size.
The other usability guidelines are determined by other HTML checks of the Web page and the Static Analyzer Tool returns a report of potential usability problems for further investigation by the Web site designer for a particular Web page.
While providing a means for checking a Web page""s HTML code against a set of guidelines that portend usability problems, the Static Analyzer Tool does not attempt to view the Web site as a whole, or view pages as would a human Web site visitor. The Static Analyzer Tool checks the HTML code for a Web page and appears to ignore plug-ins, JavaCode, audio files, frames and other common features that can greatly enhance or diminish a Web site""s effectiveness. In addition, by analyzing the HTML code of a Web page only, the Static Analyzer Tool does not provide feedback on content, size, or wait times between Web pages of a Web site, or access to the Web page as would be experienced by a human user.
The Static Analyzer Tool does not provide a ready means to objectively compare Web sites. Thus, Web site designers can not compare their Web site to other Web sites in the same, or similar, industry as a means to determine relative effectiveness.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method to analyze an entire Web site using a model that accounts for human perceptions and traits and which permits a direct objective comparison of two or more Web sites.
The present invention objectively measures attributes of a Web site. The objective measurements of the present invention permit one Web site""s effectiveness to be objectively compared to other Web site""s effectiveness. A preferred method of determining a Web site""s effectiveness includes modeling a subject Web site and determining one or more numerical quantities from the Web site model that reflect the Web site effectiveness.
The model preferably includes objects that are coupled by relationships. Values, associated with human browsing behaviors, are applied to the objects and relationships to account for human considerations to determine the Web site""s effectiveness in providing information to the user.
A preferred model for a Web site is a graph theory model having vertices, (also referred to as nodes) and edges (also referred to as arcs). Graph theory modeling permits use of known algorithms for calculating properties of the modeled Web site. Known algorithms that provide useful information of the Web site properties include shortest path and Kruskal algorithms.
Preliminary to modeling a Web site, a preferred embodiment of the present invention discerns Web site scenes and links that connect the scenes. In display terms, scenes are similar to page views but include all aspects of a user""s experience while viewing a Web site such as audio files and other types of information in the same way as browser software renders it for human users. Links are the mechanisms that connect one scene to another; most commonly, links are hyperlinks placed in one scene and that can be activated by computer input devices to launch another scene.
In addition, associated with the Web site are properties of the Web site""s content, such as size, composition, and freshness. These content properties are measured on a scene by scene basis, or, in the case of freshness, by the age of elements within scenes.
Information of the scenes and Web site content is used to create the Web site model. Under a graph theory analysis, Web site scenes are modeled as vertices, and links that connect scenes are modeled as edges. Values are assigned to the edges that reflect human factors and a numeric determination of effectiveness is calculated by an algorithmic operation on the model. Different human factors may be applied as values to the model to calculate a numerical representation of Web site effectiveness. Human factor values may be experientially estimated, empirically measured, determined from monitoring human interaction with Web sites, or taken from human factors references.
A useful measure of a Web site""s effectiveness is the accessibility of information on the Web site. As stated, nearly all Web sites seek to convey information to a user that is viewing the Web site. Even pure commercial Web sites that exist only to sell products must convey information of the products and prices. Thus, an effective Web site is one that provides relatively easy access to the information. Easy access to information includes ease of finding the information, accessing the information (including time to download and display the information), and mentally processing the information.
In a preferred embodiment, accessibility is determined for each scene of a Web site and an objective determination is calculated for the overall accessibility of the Web site using human factor values. A preferred method for determining accessibility for a scene is the shortest path algorithm as applied to a scene-based model of the subject Web site.
In other preferred embodiments, the present invention further objectively determines and reports Web site content and usability.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention permit analysis of multiple Web sites and side-by-side comparison of the Web sites along objectively determined bases. A preferred organization of the results categorize the content or usability information and provide a chart showing the relative values of the categories. The report may also provide objectively determined numbers of Web site content and usability.